Just Cracked It

Recently, I've been trying to step back from the work I've been making and trying to be honest with myself about how it's turning out and the direction I've been heading with it. And, well, I really believe I could be doing better in at least the animation side of things. I feel like I've been sacrificing quality just so I could be lazy and get stuff done without spending very much time working on it, which I think is a pretty horrible mindset to have in the first place.

So, to try and help me step up my game and put more time and love into what I've been making, here's a silly project I worked on over the past week and a half for the Ask Spike Da Dragon ( [link] ) blog. It has more of a focus on not using smears as much, or when I do use them, to use multiples instead. It was a challenge in some places, but for the most part, I wouldn't mind making more animations with this kind of focus. I'm going to keep playing around with ideas though.

I also enlisted some help this time with animating and coloring the animation itself and making all the cameos that show up! A super-duper special thank you to for animating and coloring Ask Spiiike, and (the mod behind Spike Replies) for some of the special effects, one of the backgrounds, coloring Surprise and drawing up a few cameos!

And in case you're wondering, here's the list of blogs featured in the animation (not counting mine, haha):

Ask Spiiike: [link]
Ask Surprise: [link]
Ask Regular Pony: [link]
Ask Human Discord: [link]
Ask Vaudeville: [link]
Ask Hot Blooded Pinkie Pie: [link]
Ask Kawaii Spike: [link]
Spike Replies: [link]
Ask British Spike: [link]
Ask Twilight’s Assistant: [link]
Ask Technobauble Spike: [link].
Ask Hobo Pony: [link]
Slice of Pony Life: [link]
Ask Iron Will: [link]
Ask Sugar Malt: [link]
Ask Ecstatic Rarity: [link]
Inkblot Answers: [link]
Ask the Diamond Dogs: [link]
Ax Brutaloo: [link]
Ask Filly Twilight: [link]
Askthecutiemarkcrusaders: [link]
Ask Grimdark Big Mac: [link]
Ask Albino Pie: [link]
Ask Lyra & Bon Bon: [link]
Fluttershy Replies: [link]
Ask Baby Discord: [link]

Because the original SWF file had horrible framerate problems whenever it ran in a browser thanks to those army sequences, I converted it to video using Swivel ( [link] ) and brought the video here to be viewed instead by embedding it in a SWF of it's own thanks to this here: [link] Should be a lot more handy from now on to possibly do that instead, since my animations have been starting to get a little too complex to run in just a SWF file anyway.

Lastly, yes, the audio and this scene is from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, if the voice acting and "Billies" being left in the audio wasn't a dead giveaway. We tried to edit and replace the audio, but didn't manage to figure out splicing it in or know of a good Billy West voice we could use in a pinch, haha. Since this project was made purely for fun by all three of us though, we decided not to bother with removing it. Just use your imagination!

MLP:FiM © Hasbro, The Hub
Audio from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, © Cartoon Network